Silent Hill: Book Of Memories review – mystery dungeon

Konami’s classic survival horror takes a very different turn on the PS Vita, but is a four-player dungeon crawler really the best direction for the series?

Silent Hill: Book Of Memories (PSV) – forget it

We had hoped that the failure of Downpour would finally put Silent Hill out of its misery. But like the tortured souls that populate its stories Konami’s survival horror franchise appears damned to eternal torment. We suppose the new movie explains why there’s a new game, but why it’s a four-player dungeon crawler is set to become the series’ most inexplicable mystery.

Although Silent Hill has been terrible for years now (Shattered Memories is the only post-Silent Hill 3 game we’d even remotely defend) it does suffer from many of the same problems as Resident Evil. Although Silent Hill’s more subtle, psychological horror was always a world away from Resident Evil’s B-movie shlock its slow pacing and genuine scares have made it just as unpalatable to modern mass market tastes.But although turning Resident Evil into an action game makes at least some tonal sense (given most of the characters have quasi-military training of some sort) doing the same to Silent Hill misses the point to such a degree it suggests Konami are entirely blind to its original appeal.This new spin-off though achieves a whole new level of inappropriateness. Developer WayForward are a talented bunch and we’ve enjoyed many of their 2D arcade games, such as Double Dragon Neon, Mighty Switch Force!, and Contra 4. Given how well they usually work with existing franchises and licences we can only assume that Book Of Memories was not their idea. Either that or they hate Silent Hill.Things do not start off promising, as instead of playing as a psychologically complex character with a secret history you instead pick a generic avatar and dress them up as a goth, jock, nerd or other American schoolyard cliché. The plot of the game then involves you being a sent a book with every single one of your memories in it. Although it seems rather small for that, so either your characters are goldfish or they’ve left a really boring life.Attempting to rewrite the book is all the excuse you’re then given to start trawling through a series of randomised, isometric dungeons. Although the backdrops are reminiscent of past games and many of the enemies are the same – from the split dogs to the faceless nurses – that’s the only real connection to the rest of the franchise.But even that will irritate series veterans, who know that each monster – particularly those from Silent Hill 2 – represents a specific fear in the psyche of one of the previous characters. So just throwing them randomly into Book Of Memories makes no narrative sense whatsoever.Beyond the grotesque enemies and hellish backdrops this is just a bland, undernourished dungeon crawler – a sub-genre of action role-player that focuses almost exclusively on combat and is typified in the West by Diablo.Most of the action in Book Of Memories is melee-based, as you smash monsters over the head with everything from planks of wood and steel pipes to electric guitars. All these weapons break very easily, and need to constantly be repaired or replaced – which is just as irritating as it sounds. The combat is all based around bog standard light and heavy attacks, with the only real strategy being that certain monsters are vulnerable to particular weapons.The magic system is a touch more interesting in that it’s powered by one of two karma power-ups. You collect each one from oppositely aligned enemies and can later learn to switch their types to whatever you need. But the idea is largely ruined by the fact that you usually end up collecting both types by mistake, simply by running over them, so you never really get a chance to specialise.The only slight deviation from the dungeon crawling norm is the collection of puzzle pieces, which are needed to exit the current zone. The actual puzzle itself usually involves organising the pieces by shape or colour, which isn’t terribly interesting even before they all start repeating.A four-player online mode is never a negative but the obvious problem is finding three other people that would ever want to play the game for any length of time (and we mean that literally given the appallingly long load times). Silent Hill fans will give up in disgust almost instantly, but there’s precious little appeal for anyone else either.And that’s the problem: if this had been a great game that just used the Silent Hill name to draw people in no one would mind. But it’s not; it’s a very poor game that’s not only a waste of time and money but bangs yet another nail into the coffin of a once great series.In Short:A bad idea, poorly realised. Not only does this sully the already tarnished name of Silent Hill but it’s a tediously poor dungeon crawler in its own right.Pros:Four-player co-op helps spread the pain and the level-grinding can be addictive if you switch your brain off.Cons:Dull, repetitive combat; dull, repetitive level design; and dull, repetitive puzzles. Not enough variety in the loot and horrendously long load times.Score:3/10Formats: PS VitaPrice: £34.99Publisher: KonamiDeveloper: WayForward TechnologiesRelease Date: 2nd November 2012Age Rating: 16Video:Check out the Silent Hill: Book Of Memories trailer